Female Russian journalist slain

MOSCOW – Russia’s top prosecutor yesterday took charge of investigating the slaying of a journalist who was a prominent critic of the war in Chechnya and had been about to publish a story about torture and abductions in the conflict-scarred Russian region.

Anna Politkovskaya, a 48-year-old mother-of-two who had chronicled abuses against civilians in Chechnya in the outspoken newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was found dead Saturday in the elevator in her building in Moscow. She had two gunshot wounds, one to the head.The killing provoked international condemnation and underlined the increasingly dangerous environment for journalists working in Russia since President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, launching a crackdown on media freedoms.The award-winning reporter had collected witness accounts and photos of tortured bodies and the article had been due for publication today, her newspaper’s editors said.The execution-style killing, which police described as the work of a professional contract killer, was the most high-profile slaying of a journalist in Russia since the July 2004 assassination of Paul Klebnikov, the US-born editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine.Nampa-APShe had two gunshot wounds, one to the head.The killing provoked international condemnation and underlined the increasingly dangerous environment for journalists working in Russia since President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, launching a crackdown on media freedoms.The award-winning reporter had collected witness accounts and photos of tortured bodies and the article had been due for publication today, her newspaper’s editors said.The execution-style killing, which police described as the work of a professional contract killer, was the most high-profile slaying of a journalist in Russia since the July 2004 assassination of Paul Klebnikov, the US-born editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine.Nampa-AP